Refreshing news

You may have read reports about the lake’s water being contaminated by faecal coliform bacteria. So, what does it all mean?

Faecal coliforms are present all around us and inside us. They live in our gut. Mammals (including us humans) and fish produce them all the time. They enter our water courses through normal water run-off. After heavy rains, pollutants on farm land in particular, but also those from our driveways and pavements, get into the water. It is unavoidable.

Clevedon Marine Lake fills naturally on over-topping tides from the Bristol Channel. The Environment Agency monitors water quality on the beach adjacent to the lake during the summer season, and issues poor water quality warnings when they arise.

So, what if the lake refreshes with over-topping water during a period of contamination?

We could of course just drain it out, but that would mean it would not refill until the next sequence of over-topping tides, which could mean the lake’s empty for weeks. When this occurred in August 2018, we decided to leave the lake full and to monitor the quality further. We also posted warnings about the water quality, so people could make an informed decision about entering the water before the drain down and refresh on 8th September 2018. There were no pollution alerts for the Bristol Channel in the run up to the drain down, so the lake should now be full of nice clean water. To make sure, we’ll test it again on 17th September 2018, after the sequence of over-topping tides.

Regular swimmers tend to be sanguine about the water and continue to swim as they have done daily for many years. Faecal coliform bacteria can cause gastro-enteritis symptoms or present as eye or ear infections. If any lake user is at all worried about this they should avoid using the lake until the water quality is confirmed as of at least good quality and keep a look out for updates on Clevedon Marine Lake website and social media channels.